The game at Anfield beat the weather but the Canaries must have been wishing it had not as they were completely swept aside by their hosts.

Chris Hughton’s team currently look a shadow of the side that went 10 league games unbeaten before Christmas, and though they were without key defender Sebastien Bassong, it was hardly an excuse for such a capitulation.

Ryan Bennett, who replaced Bassong, might have given City an early lead when he planted a free header straight at Liverpool keeper Brad Jones, but from the moment Jordan Henderson fired Liverpool ahead on 26 minutes, it was a virtual procession.

Luis Suarez made it 2-0 after 36 minutes from a Lucas pass, and any hope of a fightback was extinguished on 59 minutes when £12m signing Daniel Sturridge scored the third from Stewart Downing’s cross.

Steven Gerrard’s low drive made it 4-0 after 66 minutes and the fifth came eight minutes later when Ryan Bennett diverted Raheem Sterling’s effort into his own net.

After their 5-2 defeat by Liverpool at Carrow Road in September, their goal difference took another battering in a totally one-sided affair.

There were four changes to the City starting line-up from the 0-0 draw against Newcastle. Defender Bassong was a surprise absentee from the squad, with Ryan Bennett brought in to partner Michael Turner in the back four.

Wes Hoolahan, Anthony Pilkington and Simeon Jackson were dropped to the bench with Jonny Howson, Elliott Bennett and skipper Grant Holt back in the side – Holt making his first start since the Boxing Day defeat by Chelsea.

Only Russell Martin, Bradley Johnson and Elliott Bennett survived from the City starting eleven in the corresponding fixture last season.

Liverpool gave a first Premier League start for the club to Sturridge as one of four changes. Sturridge, Henderson and Jamie Carragher replaced Sterling, Joe Allen and Martin Skrtel, while there was also a change in goal with Brad Jones replacing Pepe Reina, who was out with a thigh strain.

Despite fears over the weather, and it was a bitterly cold day, snow had not fallen in the amounts forecast and Anfield and its surrounds were perfectly clear for the game.

Liverpool created the first opening in the third minute when Downing headed wide from a cross by Suarez after Glen Johnson had made good progress down the left.

City were operating with four across midfield, Elliott Bennett taking the left-sided role, and Howson supporting Holt in the role normally given to Hoolahan.

Holt won a free-kick under challenge from Gerrard and the dead-ball kick almost provided the opening goal as Snodgrass picked out the unmarked Ryan Bennett but the defender put his free header straight at Jones.

Downing fired just wide as Liverpool hit back, and with 12 minutes gone, there was a better opening as Suarez set up Sturridge for a low shot that Bunn smothered.

Suarez showed some dazzling footwork to get away from Turner and tried to set up Henderson for a shot and, as the ball came back to Suarez, he produced a smart effort from a tight angle that Bunn grabbed as the second attempt.

Garrido cleared at the expense of a corner, which Downing played short, but Holt was back to hammer the ball clear. Gerrard then let fly from long range from Suarez’s pass but was well off target, and Bunn came out well to claim a cross from Glen Johnson.

City forced their first corner when Elliott Bennett’s cross was deflected out, but the kick by Snodgrass was headed away.

But it was Liverpool who went ahead on 26 minutes with a cracking goal by Henderson.

Howson managed to harry the ball away from Suarez but Elliott Bennett’s attempt to poke the ball away fell perfectly for Henderson to swivel and strike a powerful half-volley from 20 yards that gave Bunn no chance.

Henderson, encouraged by that success, tried another half-volley from further out on 35 minutes, but this time Bunn was right behind it.

But one minute later it was 2-0 as Sturridge dummied a pass by Lucas, leaving Turner in his wake, and Suarez raced clear to tuck a right-foot shot past Bunn via the foot of the post.

City rallied quite well and after Tettey had a shot deflected wide, Holt struck a powerful volley that Wisdom headed clear, just in front of Jones.

Glen Johnson earned the day’s first yellow card for bringing down Snodgrass in full flight, but Garrido’s free-kick was easily cleared.

Bunn saved well in first half stoppage time from Sturridge after Suarez had put him through, just about keeping the Canaries in the game at the interval.

• Half-time: Liverpool 2, Norwich City 0

Four minutes after the break, Tettey volleyed wide from the edge of the penalty area, and at the other end Johnson wriggled through but his cross drifted across the six-yard box, and Bunn had to save from Gerrard, though the flag was already up for offside.

Wisdom fired horribly wide after bringing Gerrard’s crossfield pass under control, to spare the keeper having to make another save.

Downing was well off target with another effort as Liverpool continued to press, but with 59 minutes gone, he had a hand in goal number three.

Henderson picked out Downing on the right and while there was a hint of offside, the winger’s first-time cross eluded Bunn and Sturridge had the simple task of scoring his third goal in as many games for Liverpool.

A foul on Snodgrass gave City a free-kick on the right, but his kick was headed away by Agger, and with 25 minutes to go the first change was made as Hoolahan replaced Elliott Bennett, with Howson switching to the wide left role.

Hoolahan was on the pitch only a few seconds, however, when it was 4-0. Glen Johnson made unhindered progress on the left and squared the ball for Gerrard, who had all the time in the world to pick his spot and drill a low shot inside Bunn’s right-hand post.

Liverpool made a double change with just over 20 minutes to go as Sterling and Borini replaced Lucas and Sturridge.

To their credit, the City fans who braved the journey were still in good voice but as “On the Ball, City” rang out, Liverpool scored a fifth.

Substitute Sterling got away from Turner and slipped the ball across goal where Ryan Bennett got the final touch, poking it into his own net.

With 13 minutes left, Liverpool made their final change with Allen replacing Henderson.

Snodgrass was booked for a foul on Sterling and Russell Martin needlessly conceded a corner as the afternoon continued on its grim path towards the final whistle.

With four minutes left, Snodgrass made way for Pilkington in City’s second change.

City fans were congratulated by the public address announcer for their efforts in travelling to the game and wished a safe journey home – but had little reward for their loyalty.

We may be wrong some of the thime, we may be wrong mast of the thime, but we can't be wring ALL of the thime. Hoots begins to sound like Worthy. Is Timberdiddle writing his scripts?...Pa Snipps for manager!

Why do some people think that because they travel 100s of miles to matches that they are the only ones with a valid opinion, and allowed to comment. . Watching the game on a 'live stream', gives a much better view of the whole pitch, and the contribution of each player to the game. Sitting in a dug-out sucking on a bottle, or prancing up and down every few minutes distracting the players with schoolboy whistling is of no assistance. No more that shouting out “Ew are yer,” and other intelligent renditions by the Yellow clad travellers helps. Football matches are won by the best trained TEAMS, working together in Harmony, not by an individual who thinks he is better than the rest. The Managers job is to blend his trained players, and send them out to play with a good spirit!
….Now before anyone else calls for Pa Snipps to be manager, I will state clearly that I am far too old to think along those lines. On the other hand, I may be open for Consultancy on occasion!

Breaking my silence on a Saturday Night. It' seems quite clear to me that you Stew Pydsodd, and all the other Stew Pydsodds are being taken for a ride with the current set up..... Do not be afraid to question our current manager and his ideas..... Plan “C” needs to be adopted with haste. That means the “CHEVRON” with the right players playing in their proper positions. The manager must STOP playing Square pegs in round holes

If Norwich City were a Band, Dolly Parton would be on Drums, Russ Conway would be Lead Singer, and Glenn Miller would be playing the piano. All excellent at what they did best, but they've been moved around by somebody who thinks he knows better. Not going to hit the charts with this line up!

Another weekend ruined, what a rubbish winter. You can point to any number of factors why we have hit the current run of shocking form. For me, the most noticeable issue from the last several games is we don’t seem to able to create any period of sustained pressure up top, so the ball is continuously coming straight back at our defence. This leads to tiredness, loss of shape and more recently individual errors. Whittaker is a big miss for me, more physical presence than RM, gives a better option going forward also. I don’t see CH changing the formation against the top teams or away from home in general, but surely when we play the likes of Fulham, reading at home we have to go with 2 main strikers. The only positive from yesterdays result is it should increase the sense of urgency in terms of looking to recruit 2 quality players, which in my opinion is the minimum acquisition required this Jan. OTBC

Just seen MoTD. What a shambles. The defence was just lie it was at Stamford Bridge earlier this season ie just a crowd of players in the area, most of whom were not marking anyone. For two of the goals, Bunn just threw himself and flapped at the ball. He is rubbish but please don't sign another keeper not considered good enough for a championship side as rumoured. This lot looked as if they had never been coached. The centre backs were constantly pulled out of position. Neither Tettey nor Johnson looked interested and Howson defies description. Second half of the season syndrome. I am worried.

1 point from 17....another humiliating defeat. This was devastating, even if Liverpool were superb.....but we allowed them to be. This was September at Carrow Road all over again.
We are becoming dependant on the teams below us losing more than we do.That is a recipe for disaster. We have to strengthen NOW!!.....we need a quality striker NOW!!
The financial price of relegation is too high not to invest now Mr McNally!!! Dont leave it until 2359 on the 31st to bring in some loanee. You have a responsibility to this club and the fans that pay out hard earned money to support you.

I agree with DubaiCanary but not in that pathetic manner. From down here in sunny Adelaide, I would suggest those rich players put their hands in their pockets and reimburse the supporters for their travel costs in that. weather to watch that third rate display

Worryingly too reliant on Bassong; Rudd has to now be given a chance; and we need more playmaking from deeper, not simply a midfield dominated by protecting the defence. If don't have a strong enough midfield to only play 4 in midfield, we'll never be able to play two strikers... I have no idea what the answer is but we need one

Ouch! we are not having a good winter. Only saving grace is that the rest of the bottom half are very inconsistent. even my optimism is waning a little, we will be lucky if we see point in the next two league games. Lets see if the cheque book comes out.

Think johnny 4 fingers jumped the gun a bit. Villa only got a point. Still 6 points behind us. I'm not impressed and maybe this result might Encourage Mc Nasty to get his cheque book out. However the guys below us are not getting too many points either. OTBC IHWT

Was at anfield yesterday and felt the same as I have for sometime. That we are screaming out for David fox , desperate for someone of his stock to sit in that midfield and consistently spray the ball around to a team mate like he does. Hughton has no plan b, howson is simply not up to it, and I don't wanna jump on a young guys back but Ryan benett is just not ready, looks so nervous and in fact looks like he needs the toilet constantly and plays like it to.

I agree, we need Whittaker fit. We missed Bassong really badly. Poor Holtie had no service at all, we were badly let down by holding players. It seemed that whole team was suffering from the Morison Syndrome, "what am I doing here, daring to play against gods like Suarez and Gerrard?". Too much respect given all round. Having said all that, it is fixable.

Things that were rosy just a couple of months ago have now turned gloomy, everything is wrong with us at the moment both on and off the pitch. Starting with our finances, I worry that Norwich are becoming a business over a football club, everything is rising in price, some things quite dramatically (£30 per ticket for a cup game). And in spite of the finances already received, and the financial incentive of next year's premier league, I worry the club has almost conspired in respects to their promise to the fans, when in truth the money spent is pitiful compared to our rivals. And as for on the pitch, I agree with most people, completely uninspiring in every aspect of our game, we can't pass, we don't have any flair or any rigidity on the contrary. We are easily beaten, we are not solid, we are not incisive, we just look poor. Everyone seems so flat footed, we need some players to take the bull by the horns and run when they receive the ball, get the crowd on the edge of their seats and make every pass have a purpose, right now we have no runners and every pass is sideways or backwards, we need maybe some fresh faces to give us new ideas and for goodness sake a new formation! I have no doubt that the true reason for our downfall is that we've chosen the same set up for 15 games or so! We've been sussed.

There's no positive spin to put on to today really. But the criticism of Hughton is silly. People were crying for Elliott Bennett to play, what did he achieve yesterday? The fact is that the team we had that beat Man Utd was our sweet spot, but you take Bassong out of our defense and it falls to bits. Take Ruddy away and we leak. Nobody should forget how many phenomenal saves Ruddy had to make to get that win against Man U. There just isn't the depth of squad. Hughton's a good manager, Norwich will survive this season, then the club builds from there.

We lack quality in depth this has become very apperant over the last few games as soon as we have an injury we have to play somebody that is not up to the standard required.Most of the teams around us have bought players in but we seem unable to do so but we need to act FAST do there is only one way we are going and that's DOWN. OTBC

It's a mystery to me too Bonesy. Perhaps Fox will get a chance when it finally dawns on the inadequate management team that the tactic of Snodgrass cutting in from the right wing, falling over and scoring from the dubious free kick has been sussed.

Losing at Anfield is one thing. To be well beaten another. Time to change things around. Mind you amongst the wholly understandable dismay in earlier posts, there are few ideas on how City can do better. This will matter most when playing teams in the bottom half of the league.
Oh and its now West Brom 2 Villa 2 and the final whistle has gone at the Hawthorns.

Far too defensive yesterday. Better to have a go and get hammered rather than contain and get hammered. Fans were badly short changed and I'm a little concerned that CH attributed that to the quality of Liverpool rather than our own abject performance. How can our two best performing players in hoolahan and pilkington be left on the bench? I'm getting worried how quickly we could get sucked into the relegation scrap. We have gone from one of the best performing PL sides to the worst in four weeks.

Ouch! we are not having a good winter. Only saving grace is that the rest of the bottom half are very inconsistent. even my optimism is waning a little, we will be lucky if we see point in the next two league games. Lets see if the cheque book comes out.

Like most of the comments on here, I am beginning to have serious doubts about Hoots' ability to manage; either that or his assistants are completely inept! To say that the management team are tactically naive is an understatement. We have been using the same formation since the beginning of the season and it no longer works. Yes, we did have a good run with it, but once we lost at WBA it has literally fallen apart. We are so predictable at the moment. But what really worries me is that at halftime yesterday, no changes were made to the tactics or the formation. Within ten mins we were 4-0 down. There is something seriously wrong here and it needs sorting NOW!! Its all very well getting in new players but if they are then forced into this one track system it won't make any difference at all. Big changes have to be made or we will be in big trouble!!! Interestingly I see there has been no post match interview with Hoots posted; says it all really. otbc

Lots of comments, many in duplicate. I agree with Timbo; no game should be seen as a "can`t win". That`s pathetic, dishonest - and cheating the paying supporters. We wouldn`t have beaten MUFC and The Gunners with that attitude. Hoots nearly got "Pa Snipps` Tips" right; he just played little Benno on the left & Snods on the right instead of vice-versa. That was a limp, disorganised and spiritless performance. The players should stump up to fund the Academy, not the fans. That`s taking the p**s. Then we might see some fresh and enthusiastic players coming through, funded by those who failed to step up to the plate - Natural Justice. The players have to put it right. Where`s Calderwood?

I dont think there are 3 worse teams than us at present - 2 maybe, Newcastle & Wigan. All the other teams around the bottom are fighting and giving 100% commitment and picking up points from most games. The gap between us and bottom 3 is now minimal. We dont seem to want to fight for the points and rarely seem to give 100% - that is ever since that day when we were at the heights of 7th in the premier league. I am worried
.

If we aren't expecting to beat Liverpool what was the point of sending a team there? The old martial arts adage that "Those who expect to lose have lost already" springs to kind. I don't see anything positive about calmly accepting defeat after defeat. We are entitled to expect changes + action from the manager. New signings + a change of tactics wouldn't be a bad start.

I take it from all the comments on here that everyone who HAS commented attended the game yesterday? Yes by all accounts it was not a pretty site for us Yellows fans BUT..... it was only a matter of weeks ago that we were all singing the praises of the club for appointing CH etc. and only a few weeks before that, that we was struggling. Things will turn around very quickly. We must keep the faith!

Well said Pa! The old cliché about "if you`re good enough, you`re old enough" can be rejigged for your managerial credentials; "If you`re good enough, you`re not too old!". Don`t be a Consultant, that`s tantamount to prostitution.

Booty, not everybody is in a position to attend every game; we have to make do with "streams", televised games, Radio Partridge, MOTD & talking to people who did go. Do you have to sit regularly in the gallery of the House of Commons to qualify to vote??

Another weekend, another nail in the coffin of relegation. In the last 4 years I've never been more than 2 places out in my final league place prediction for Norwich at the turn of the year. This year? 18th for Norwich. Why? 3 reasons: (1) the team: no goalkeeper til end of March, the Leeds trio have gone off the boil and no striker of premiership quality ("Holty" doesn't want to play for "Norwichy" and it shows); (2) the club: not enough money to buy in quality players to compete with the "subbuteo" clubs ("subbuteo" because when their players get trodden on, their owner uses his generous pocket money to go out and buy another whole box of shiny new ones); (3) the other relegation contenders: QPR will scrape through with "Harry" and new striker Remy; Wigan always escape; Newcastle are too big to go down; So'ton are on the up; Fulham have too much class; Westham have the easiest run in fixture wise; the others should be safe.....and (4) the fixture list: Norwich need 35 points, ie another 9. I can see one win and maybe 5 draws...that's only 8 points. Still, let's end on a positive note: we won't be bottom of the class. That honour goes to poor old Reading. And better news still: Villa will finish 19th......and even better news: Lambert will be sacked and justice done.

It's difficult to desribe my disgust at the performance yesterday, so I won't bother. All I will say is that Whooton will take us back to Division 3, he's hopeless. We should never have let Mr Lambert leave, he was a legend. Anyway yesterday wasn't all bad. Had a great weekend in Liverpool with Wolfie and the lads. Met some lovely ladies (Especially Hayley, "Miaow")and treated them to a night with Ged. A night they'll never forget. Warm Regards Ged - Lover, Legend, Loaded

Fair comment, Booty. I`m in the "no blind faith" camp along with DocOhNo. I`ve followed Norwich, as best I can, since 1958. We must remain realistic; we support the players but they are being well paid to give us something in return - vicarious success. Fans are not meant to be the faithful lapdogs of the handsomely rewarded performers, surely? I would say the players have had plenty of support from the fans; even when Roeder\Gunn dragged us into L1, the fans mostly remained loyal. It took the Colchester débacle to make the club realise it`s meant to be a reciprocal arrangement. It`s not all about surreptitious funding of the Academy to disguise Season Ticket price increases and provide opulent lifestyles for the fortunate few who are (half) decent at football. Blind loyalty can result in a lack of respect in return. Aka taking the p**s.

How much did you say you wanted for next season's -season ticket MR MACNASTY--oh & you also wanted £19 towards our youth team set up.Try & convince the parents of our 2 young goalkeepers who both are better than Bunn.

As with all our recent games, lots of huffing and puffing with no end product. Running off the ball is virtually non existent. Close ball control is poor. Peripheral vision, non existent. Absolutely clueless. Can you honestly pick out a player that's joined us who has actually improved, can you honestly say any Norwich player has class. Did we look like scoring. Unless we change the way we play we're going down!

Whoever is playing the part of Nero at Carrow Road - the manager, the chief executive or the board - for goodness sake put your fiddle down, pull your finger out and buy some quality players before the whole place burns around you.
(By the way Villa have just scored in their game against WBA)

you would have thought the players who came in, ie the two bennetts and howson would have played thier socks off to prove to hughton that they should always be in the starting line up.But no all three were very poor as were the rest of the team.Why did they all stand off and watch liverpool attack?they gave them too much room and let them run past them as though they were not there!When we did get the ball in the final third there was always two liverpool players their to nick the ball of us.Why cant we do that?Feel sorry for the 1800 fans who travelled in the snow and ice to watch that league one performance,hope the players feel guilty!But no they will pick up their fat wages and probably hope teams below them keep losing so they can prance around in the premiership next season instead of putting in alot more effort!

Ref leslie cater`s comment, I agree that an injury to one player should not weaken the team so seriously. Holt, Bassong, Ruddy & Whittaker are all missed too much, specially 3 at once!. There is simply nobody to "do a Holty". Ryan Bennett, for all his alleged promise, looks a Greenhorn at times. At least we have Cafu for Whits. Then there`s Bunn.

I do think we were less bad today than at Carrow Road. That said, a lot of improvement needed. There's no point in playing 2 holding midfielders if they don't get in the face of the opposition!, where the eff were BJ and Tettey. I don't think we can blame Bunn for any of the goals, left terribly exposed by the midfield and defence. I was absolutely disgusted with some of our players swapping shirts at the end of the game, if you want to do that do it in the tunnel later. Worst of all whoever swapped shirts with Suarez should have a serious talking to from the manager.

They would have 11 Ray Charleses in goal. Dolly Parton would be relegated to the bench in case Hoots wanted to go for Plan Double D: Two big Strikers up front, a formation that has its knockers. Roy Orbison would come on as a last minute tactical sub to sing "It`s Over". On another board, I read that our next League match vs Spurs is on Saturday 30th January. What year does 30th Jan next fall on a Saturday??

Yep! Changes do need to be made!....Plan "A" isn't working. Plan "B" hasn't been shown daylight, if there is a Plan"B". So me thinks that the changes have to be made on the training ground with the trainers!

The biggest worry is that the teams below the City are running into form. Having just had the dubious pleasure of watching the debacle at Liverpool. Where do City go from here? The City defenders were abysmal. At one point four City players marked each other in a two metre square on the edge of the box and still the lone Liverpool player manage to put a dangerous pass across goal. The Liverpool attack were given so much space and time it was pathetic. Four Liverpool attackers outnumbered the eight defenders. The City players were like rabbits caught in a cars headlight. They do not seem understand that is alright to tackle the opposition. The relegation battle is on and at this point in time it looks ugly. Blame the manager as much as you like but the players must show heart and some measure of skill. They are highly paid professionals.

No Stew, the band would not have a lead singer but three bass guitarists, four drummers (with three more standing in the wings as reserve) then class themselves as a choir. All band members would also be tone deaf.

My weekends being spoiled week after week lately. Not because we are losing but because the quality of football by City is so poor. Our players seem to have lost all their sense of adventure and enthusiasm. 1 pass forward 8 passes sideways or backwards. I'M also hanging on before I renew my ticket untill I see if anyone or anything changes.

I did feel that Hoots was the man for the job, but I'm now wondering if he can turn sow's ears into silk purses like PL did. Spurs + Newcastle both had money to spend. CH did well on a shoestring budget @ Bham. Not sure if he can repeat the feat @ City. He needs to get his head round 4-4-2 + grind some results out, rather that being all defensive + technical ! More fire-power needed urgently. The injury to Ruddy is also costing us dear. Please give Rudd a try. Bunn is not good enough @ this level.

Deja vu hughton is back to praising the opposition .we are leaking goals for fun. Another spineless performance. We are so reliant on Bassong in defence it is obscene. Ryan Bennett is out of his depth and Turner is back to early sseason form. Watching Reading at Newcastle you can see them fighting for everything. Reading are poor and got lucky but they fought for everything. In contrast we lamely gave up once Liverpool were 2 up. We are so predictable with no cutting edge. Rely heavily on set pieces for goals with nothing else to offer. I hope we can get some players in during the transfer window as we ned fresh impetus.

I've never been one for blind faith so hopefully my optimism has some grounds. We still have a 7 point cushion and are still to play the likes of QPR, Southampton, VIII lla etc so our redemption is in our own hands. I think we'll be ok but would be very happy to see a turnaround in team tactics, attitude, personnel etc. I do wonder why we took Kane just to sit on the bench, we complained about Butterfield not getting much match time on his last loan, are Spurs thinking the same?

Was at anfield yesterday and felt the same as I have for sometime. That we are screaming out for David fox , desperate for someone of his stock to sit in that midfield and consistently spray the ball around to a team mate like he does. Hughton has no plan b, howson is simply not up to it, and I don't wanna jump on a young guys back but Ryan benett is just not ready, looks so nervous and in fact looks like he needs the toilet constantly and plays like it to.

Another weekend ruined, what a rubbish winter. You can point to any number of factors why we have hit the current run of shocking form. For me, the most noticeable issue from the last several games is we don’t seem to able to create any period of sustained pressure up top, so the ball is continuously coming straight back at our defence. This leads to tiredness, loss of shape and more recently individual errors. Whittaker is a big miss for me, more physical presence than RM, gives a better option going forward also. I don’t see CH changing the formation against the top teams or away from home in general, but surely when we play the likes of Fulham, reading at home we have to go with 2 main strikers. The only positive from yesterdays result is it should increase the sense of urgency in terms of looking to recruit 2 quality players, which in my opinion is the minimum acquisition required this Jan. OTBC

ive read most of the comments on here and completely agree with them. Does anyone else also think Fox needs to be played more often than just the fa cup? class player who hoots just insists on ignoring.

That was one of the worst performances i have seen. This negative tactic of one upfront has died its death. And as for Bunn, get him out of there Rudd is far better. Bunn's positioning is amateur. Mind you our defense create the problem. Hooper scored another 2 today. Great signing if we get him but will have to play him alongside Holt. Not a lone striker

Woeful. Seriously getting concerned for Hoots's inability stubborness to change formation when the need arises. We look like a team completeley devoid of ideas and in total freefall. We lose 5-2 to Liverpool at home yet he thinks with the same formation we will go to Anfield and get something from the game.....

Woeful. Seriously getting concerned for Hoots's inability stubborness to change formation when the need arises. We look like a team completeley devoid of ideas and in total freefall. We lose 5-2 to Liverpool at home yet he thinks with the same formation we will go to Anfield and get something from the game.....

The players will only be playing the way they've been told to play. I'll wage you that there are rumblings in the changing room. If they're being criticised they'll be looking for someone else to blame and it's got to be the system because "they're better players than the system is allowing them to be" of course!

Wow, it's like walking in on a wake before someone has even died. Morning you happy lot. One of the reasons we can't defend is that we have no attack. Every enemy team knows they can commit most of their players into attack because we have nothing to counteract it with. Holty will cover every blade of grass on the pitch but unless he gets the ball and has support he might as well sit down and make daisy chains. The badger needs to think about attacking the enemy now and again to give the defence a chance instead of his rigid never changing formation.

We look a very poor team at the moment - can't defend, can't create chances, can't score goals - just about every aspect of the game of football we look pretty dreadful. We need new players and we need to ship people out if CH can't see that he needs to find a new job. Can someone explain why Harry Kane is at NCFC if he is never going to play? I am sure he could sit on Spurs bench just the same - seems a waste of loan player to me - especially when we lack quality in every position.

Our strengths, and what has kept us in the Prem, are our fighting spirit, never give up attitude and team commitment. The recent good run has, I feel, led the players to believe the job was as good as done and at the same time led them to believe they are goo enough just to go out, stroke the ball around and get results. . Apart from some strange selection decisions and the way the team is being set up, I suspect this is the core of the problem. The players have to roll their sleeves up and get back to basics.

Bassong injured, last week the very regular comment was "can't understand how Hoolahan got MoM", I also think Pilks has been looking cream crackered for the last few games. By the way Blue Pushchair, we played Liverpool today, a team in the Premier League, who did you play?

I really hope you`re right there, LYB. Little Benno may have been more effective on the right, Snods on the left.(Bring on Pa Snipps). We have become predictable and, as a result, ineffectual. If that string of draws and 1-goal wins had lasted another 6 games, we`d be nearly home & hosed, but it didn`t.

The truth is perhaps,that with our financal set up we are a championship side who are punching above our weight.In the past when Leeds where doing well a young fan was asked if he was looking forward to promotion.He said he wasnt because it was better to be a big fish in a small pond etc.He was thinking no doubt of the personal feeling of humiliation you feel when one of the big teams gives you the sort of drubbing we got yesterday.Having said that, the longer the longer you can hang on in the premiership the stronger your financial becomes.If this is not so we might as well throw the towel in now.We're going thru a bad patch but its not too late for survival.But maybe its more likely if the manager and team feel the positive support of the 12th man instead of a lot of unhelpful carping.We should adopt Holts 'never say die' atitude.I would also say that Bunn is a very fair replacement for Ruddy afterall how many clean sheets did we have last season.

Totally agree with a lot of the comments here. We have too many players who are simply Championship material. But what has happened to our commitment? QPR are now showing that in spades, just like we used to do. They, among others down at the bottom, have signed good players. We have not signed anyone. Agree - what;s the point of having Kane her e if we don't give him a game? Pilks and Hoolahan are the only players who give us hope up front. Without them we have nothing.

Does the problem stem from the back?
Yes....Bunn cannot command the box or his defence
Does the problem stem from the front? Yes, Holt cannot do it alone and without service.
Does the problem stem from the top? Definitely....we will not survive by having a sound business plan, and shopping in footballs Primark!
Even through our so called purple spell, Hughton never had a plan "B".
We need at least one new, quality striker....or our slide will continue. Why not give Rudd a run....he cant be worse than Bunn!

I was worried during the 10 game run that we had found our best starting XI but that there was nothing in reserve. It's coming home to roost now. We've not looked as solid without Ruddy. Bassong was sorely missed today and to voluntarily start without Pilks and Wes boggles the mind. Howson looks more like a Championship player every time I watch him. Extra concerning is that the teams pinning down the bottom of the league appear to be raising their game and improving their squads whilst we slowly drop down and down.

I dont think there are 3 worse teams than us at present - 2 maybe, Newcastle & Wigan. All the other teams around the bottom are fighting and giving 100% commitment and picking up points from most games. The gap between us and bottom 3 is now minimal. We dont seem to want to fight for the points and rarely seem to give 100% - that is ever since that day when we were at the heights of 7th in the premier league. I am worried
.